Saturday, June 14, 2025
We love the Rick Steves “vacation from our vacation” where we have a free day to explore and do whatever we want to do. And Kardamyli was a great place to relax and enjoy.
Several of us hiked up the road to the old town, where there was a small museum and church.
The area was once the site of a small community, with a walled vegetable garden, a well, a mill, a brick oven, living quarters, and a small olive grove.
The millstone was leaning up against one of the outside walls. I took a picture with Jennifer standing next to it to show how large it was. Setting it in place on the bottom stone must have been a real chore.
Here is a picture of our little hiking group.
Left to right we have Ken (who took the selfie), Jennifer, me, Patti, Chris, Cathy, and Sue. Sue is 82 years young and going strong. I want to be her when I grow up!
We climbed up the tower for a view across the valley.
From the old village we hiked up a small
rocky trail to the legendary grave site of the heavenly twins Castor and
Pollux. It wasn’t much to look at, but
hey, we can say we went there!
Inside there is a hole cut in the stone between the tombs so that the brothers could be together in the afterlife.
Then it was time to head back, with one last picturesque view of the Old Town.
After cleaning up a bit, we all went
down the road to a restaurant where you could use the beach chairs if you had lunch. It was recommended in Rick’s
book, so we figured that it must be pretty good. After lunch, Lyle and I ventured into the
water. The “beach” was very rocky –
large fist-sized rocks- and it was painful to walk on. I had on flip flops and they helped some, but
once you got to the water it was still rocky.
Luckily the bottom dropped off quickly and you could just drop your body into the water. Once you were out about 8-10 feet, you could no longer touch the bottom.
And just as we got out about neck chest deep, Lyle announced that he had lost his wedding ring – again! This is about the 4th time, but the first time for this particular ring, the Claddagh ring we bought in Dublin for out tenth anniversary (on our first Rick Steves tour!).
The water was really clear and we were looking for it along the bottom. A man came up and volunteered to help look with his swim goggles. I saw something bright in the rocks at the bottom. I put my foot there and asked our helper to check it out for me and he came back up with the ring!!! He was the hero of the day!
